JB Financial Group’s commercial banking units -- Jeonbuk Bank and Kwangju Bank -- are strengthening their capacity to integrate robotic process automation technologies within banking services, the group said Monday.

RPA uses artificial intelligence and machine learning software to automate repetitive business processes.

Jeonbuk Bank has recently extended the use of RPA, from the bank’s headquarters to local branches, in a step to reduce employees working hours and provide better service for customers. The automated program will replace bank clerks’ jobs to send transaction records or other banking documents to subscribers by email or fax. The regional bank expects the RPA system to reduce its employees’ annual working hours by 36,000. 

Meanwhile, earlier in October, Kwangju Bank extended its robo-adviser service, dubbed KJ Mybot, which was previously only operated at bank branches, to the bank’s smartphone application, in response to customers’ preference for contactless banking amid the pandemic. The automated investment advisory program recommends fund products by analyzing the level of risk an investor is willing to take, the first of its kind in the banking sector, the bank said. 

Robo-advisers are wealth management services that use automated trading algorithms to manage and optimize investment portfolios, instead of human instinct. 

“JB Financial will speed up efforts to innovate the traditional banking services to respond to a rapidly changing financial landscape,” the group official said. 

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)